


We Always Do

by quakinginmystylishboots



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: 7x06 spoilers, Gen, POV Daniel Sousa, Post 7x06
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:01:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25071334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quakinginmystylishboots/pseuds/quakinginmystylishboots
Summary: Sousa and Daisy talk after she's out of the healing pod and he finds purpose in her resilience.
Relationships: Skye | Daisy Johnson & Daniel Sousa
Comments: 6
Kudos: 48





	We Always Do

**Author's Note:**

> English isn't my first language so any language weirdness is probably due to that.

He finds her rummaging through the cupboards of the neatly arranged kitchen time-travelling planes from the future apparently come equipped with. Her hair is tied in a loose ponytail and she's wearing what to him looks like athletic garment but could be a pajama. She looks younger, and there's no overt sign of the ordeal she has experienced just a day earlier.

“I thought you were supposed to be resting in the pod for a while longer” Daniel Sousa says, lingering on the entryway. He's actually glad Agent Johnson is out and about. Seeing her moving, vibrant...it gives him comfort.

“Well, we're down three people, not really a good time to laze in bed”, she tells him, pulling out what looks like a box of cereals and moving to fetch a bowl and a spoon.

He frowns, disbelief at her cavalier attitude and admiration for her resilience mixing with a sudden inability to express what he's thinking.

“It's not my first rodeo, Sousa” she adds, correctly interpreting his silence. “Not the first time some psycho creep plays Operation on me either”. The last line is muttered under her breath, more for herself than for him. 

“You did mention...it...had happened before...” As soon as he says it, he regrets it. He shouldn't be asking, shouldn't be digging but he can't help being curious...he sees the memory of the moment coming back to her, and he hates himself for it. She's not going to give him a straight answer anyway, why did he bring it up?

Just like in the barn, she surprises him.

“I meant my mother. The man Malick mentioned, Reinhardt? He did... - a grimace - _will_ do to her what he did to me, a few years from now. Worse, actually ”. 

“I'm sorry”. It feels awfully inadequate. It is awfully inadequate. She shrugs and pours milk on her cereals. The moment stretches and Daniel struggles for a change of subject.

“So, are you the one in charge now, with the Director and Agent Coulson missing?”

She gives him a curious look. Then shrugs again. “I doubt Mack would want that. He was a little crossed with me”. A smirk. It's pretty. Almost playful. 

Daniel chuckles. It figures. From what he's seen of her in the week he's known her, she has the fierce independence of thinking that makes for the best agents but, also, on occasion, the worst headaches. 

“What did you do?”

She takes a beat to answer, taking a spoonful of her cereals, her back leaning on the counter.

“I wanted to kill Malick. The father, back in 1931? I tried to make it happen. I made the call, without telling him. Against orders.” She doesn't look contrite, just frustrated. After everything, Sousa can't really blame her.

“Maybe that wasn't such a bad idea, considering”, he offers.

She huffs, shaking her head. 

“It's not just personal, you know? They...the Malicks, Hydra...are responsible for _so much_ pain and misery and death...I can't imagine the world would be worse if they had never existed - she scoffs - although the world always has a way to surprise me there”. She's trying for flippancy but Sousa can tell it covers for something much darker.

He's not one to encourage buckling the chain of command but he's also seen how that's necessary sometimes. He doesn't have an answer. He doesn't try to come up with one.

“And now the timeline's all screwed up anyway. It all feels pointless”. She's looking way past her bowl, way past the dark grey bulkheads. For a moment, he sees it...the rage, the hurt, the anguish and the almost superhuman uwillingness to give up.

He needs the both of them to hold onto the latter. 

“We'll make it work. We have to”. She looks him straight in the eyes for the first time since their conversation started. Something passes between them. He has no word for it. All he knows is that 24 hours ago he was ready to plant his flag in the 1970s and stay out of history but now he's committed. To this crazy mission to save the world from alien robots, and to this future version of S.H.I.E.L.D. that had felt almost as unfamiliar as the synthetic enemy they're fighting. 

Watching Daisy Johnson, knocked down so brutally but already on her feet, he knows. This, is his S.H.I.E.L.D., too

After a moment, she nods. 

“Yeah. We always do.”


End file.
